Family, School, and Society: Shaping the Developing Child

How do family, school, and society shape children's lives? This course examines major social issues affecting children and adolescents in the United States through a developmental systems lens. Grounded in theory and empirical research and attentive to current events, the course helps students further develop their analytical reasoning, empirical literacy, and capacity for thoughtful self-reflection. Students examine how issues such as family and neighborhood poverty, maternal and infant health, fatherhood, educational inequality, sexual orientation and stigma, immigration, and juvenile justice affect developmental trajectories and turning points. Rather than treating these as isolated issues, the course explores the mechanisms through which context shapes development across multiple levels of the environment, from intimate family processes to broader structures of policy, culture, and law.